Frequent HSV2, looking for suppressive options

I have had HSV2 for over 10 years with at least 5 outbreaks a year, sometimes more.  I was given Valtrex to be taken daily as suppressive therapy.  Due to the cost, I only take it when an outbreak is coming on...they have been more frequent lately (the latest lest than 1 month apart!).  I am interested in the use of lysine...does that have any results that you know of?  If I take the Valtrex with an outbreak, how long am I supposed to stay on it.  Would these number of outbreaks cause swollen groin lymph nodes on one side?  I had on of them biopsied and it came back large, but benign.

[gracefromHHP]

Acyclovir is less than $20/month for suppressive therapy.

I'm going to cut and paste a reply on lysine I just made yesterday on another forum for you too.

grace

[gracefromHHP]

Actually yes some of us are pretty familiar with the studies in that article. It's one we've discussed quite a bit in the past ( as well as the individual studies in it ). The medscape article is a terrific one because it's a reprinting of a compendium of all the lysine and herpes studies out there for easy reference ( and beats reading thru all the studies individually ). The only studies that showed any reduction were rather small and it's a far less significant reduction in ob's than any of the herpes antivirals. we also have absolutely no shedding studies with lysine which if you are in a discordant relationship, as many of our posters are, it's irresponsible for us to even suggest something that won't give the most bang for your buck for the least amount of effort and money. One thing we've learned from many studies is that a lack of obvious lesions, is not a lack of shedding of the virus so just looking at # of ob's only, isn't doing the most it can for folks with herpes ( and this even applies to famvir too we found out from 1 study ). You can get acyclovir for under $20/month even without insurance, you only have to take it 2x/day plus it's safe for long, long term use ( we have studies showing it's safe to take suppressively non-stop for 20+ years now ). Acyclovir suppression reduces ob's on average by 70% and reduces shedding of the virus on average 80%. These are significant reductions and why we recommend using it suppressively. Also most of our posters who have tried lysine, don't really get any significant relief on it to boot. There are exceptions but like any medication out there, there will always be a small number of folks who it's effective in even if overall it's not effective enough to recommend widely ( hope that makes sense? ). For instance take the herpevac vaccine trials that we also talk a lot about. That vaccine came about from another vaccine that 15+ years ago totally bombed in effectiveness in a very large and well done study ( we probably got more info on herpes in general from that study than any other study done besides the valtrex and reduction in transmission study ). Upon further examination over time of the study, it was noticed that in females who were completely hsv naive prior to vaccination with it, they did have a statistically relevant rate of protection from the vaccine. Fast forward 15+ years later and here we sit eagerly awaiting the results of the trial to see if it really was that effective and if it's something we can offer to our daughters when they are infants to protect them from hsv. Same with how you read about how some medications are more effective in different ethnic groups than others. Everything effects everyone differently.

So back to your original question - does lysine increase triglycerides? Yes, I do recall reading info that it can ( and also have read info that it decreases them - seems to depend on the nutritional balance in general ). It's also not recommended for long term use at the 1gm 3x/day daily dose that the only studies that showed any statistical significance require you to take. To be perfectly honest, most of us get more than enough lysine naturally anyways in our diets.

So will it hurt you in general to try lysine supplements for your herpes? Odds are it won't. Will it help? Odds are it won't. It's up to you and your particular situation as to whether you feel it's worth trying or not.